Matthew 10:1-7

Matthew 10:1-7

And after calling out to His twelve disciples, He gave authority to them over unclean spirits in order to cast them out and to heal every disease and every sickness.  And the names of the twelve apostles are these: First, Simeon the one who is being called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and James, the one of Zebedee, and his brother, John, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector, James the one of Alphaeus and Thaddeus, James the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, the one who handed Him over.  Jesus sent out these Twelve after commanding them while saying, “You all should not go into the road of the Gentiles and you all should not go into the towns of the Samaritans.  But journey instead into the sheep that have been lost of the house of Israel.  And while going, proclaim while saying that the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.”

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

We have an incredibly eclectic group of disciples.  It has been said that Jesus made up His disciples from the nobodies of His day.  Yes, there wasn’t anyone with great wealth or prestige.  But that doesn’t mean that these are nobodies.  We have Matthew the tax collector – author of this Gospel.  He started his life off being known as a collaborator with Rome.  He was willing to do the dirty work to get Rome its money.  We have James the zealot.  The zealots wanted Rome done away with, so he and Matthew would have naturally been at odds with one another.  Then we have no less than four fisherman: two sets of brothers, even!  So we have city folk mingling with rural people.  What we can see is that anyone can come together and work with one another so long as the agendas are all set aside.  If Matthew and James had met away from Jesus, there would have been words and probably worse!  But when Matthew and James put their allegiance in God and not in the things of this world, suddenly they find themselves on the same team.  When we drop our own agendas and embrace the agenda of God, things can go remarkably well between us and other people who are genuinely following the Lord. 

Do you find this to be true?  Have you ever found yourself enjoying the presence of someone in the Lord that outside of the Lord you probably wouldn’t have tolerated?

Second Thought:

I am always amazed at this prohibition in this passage against the disciples from going to the Gentiles.  After all, didn’t Jesus go among Gentiles?  Jesus went to a Canaanite woman in Matthew 15, which is a story from which we get the famous “even the dogs eat the crumbs off of the table” line.  Jesus went into the region of the Decapolis, a largely Gentile area, where the feeding of the 4,000 happens.  Jesus went to the Samaritan woman at the well.  How can Jesus prohibit His disciples to do the very thing that He Himself does?  I believe there are three good reasons why Jesus would give this prohibition. 

• First, His disciples are new to proclaiming the faith.  They would experience fewer struggles by beginning in a familiar context.
• Second, Jesus is like any leader of a movement.  Jesus needs to prioritize objectives.  Jesus knows that support prior to His crucifixion should come from among the Jews.  Finding too much support among the Gentiles would only quicken His rejection and crucifixion.  There would be plenty of time to preach to the Gentiles after His death, and the disciples would be prepared for it by then.
• Third, and perhaps most importantly, God knew that Paul would be equipped and open to going among the Gentiles of the Roman Empire.  The Gentiles would be the mission field for other people.  The disciples of Jesus were called to the Hebrew people.  Jesus was setting parameters upon these disciples and their mission field.

What is the scope of your mission field?  Where are you likely to begin and experience less turmoil while you grow and develop and mature?

Third Thought:

Have you ever considered the names on this list?  Sure, we’ve got the big names. Peter is so well known everybody has heard of him.  James and John are the sons of Thunder and make up the rest of the big three.  But what about Bartholomew?  What about Thaddeus?  Just out of curiosity, how many of Jesus’ twelve apostles could you name?  If you are like most people, you can probably get 7 or 8 for sure.  So why is this important?  It’s important because once more we understand that there are big names, popular names, and lesser names.  Jesus loved them all.  Jesus called them all.  They all had a place in the kingdom.  You don’t have to be destined for stardom to be loved by God.  You can be a largely forgotten disciple and still matter to Jesus.

Have you ever wondered about your place in the kingdom of God?  How does remembering the forgotten disciples help you understand that there is a place for the people who are overlooked?

Passage for Tomorrow: Matthew 10:8-10